About Me

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Well, after a few false starts, I now have a job. Not in the Army, not in a resort in the Whitsundays...in The Cayman Islands. "SAY WHAT!?" I hear you cry (and also possibly: "where the eff is that?". Yes, I shit you not, I'll be spending my gap year (possibly longer, if I can wriggle it) in Tenerife, Puerto de la Cruz, which is one of the top resort islands in The Caymans. And, as well as being and island off the top of Africa, it's also Spanish. So I'll get to learn Spanish and (here's the best bit) pick up cute Spanish boys to be my island guides.

The family I'm staying with is originally from Madrid. I'll be looking after 2 kids-Oldubai, a 7 year old cutie who loves singing, dancing and being a drama queen-she sounds like me when I was little. She attends the British International School (there's a lot of Brits living in Tenerife) so I have to speak English to her. I'll teach her to speak with a REAL accent :) Maceos is 2, and apparently he's a real macho man who loves sports, running around and being tough, but also loves cuddles. I'll be speaking English with the family, but they'll also teach me Spanish and speak to me in Spanish so I get the hang of it :) Laticia & Israel sound fabulous, they're really nice & are encouraging me to study at one of the two universities on the island while I'm there. They're also insisting that I'm one of the family now. Sa-weeeeeeet!I'll be speaking English with the family, but they'll also teach me Spanish and speak to me in Spanish so I get the hang of it-hopefully I'll be pretty close to fluent soon :)

BUT (big but) this wasn't an easy post to get. I signed up for about 4 au pair online sites, had many, many rejections (more than I care to count). I got rather excited a few weeks ago when a lady in Connecticut messaged me saying that they'd be interested in me coming over & looking after their 4 kids. Since CT is nearish to New York (second to Paris on my cities-to-visit list) and i have very dear friends in Minnesota, I was like "Can I get a hellllllllYEAH?!" and asked her for more details of the job...and she never wrote back. Then, almost simultaneously to my Tenerife job being offered to me, a lady in Staten Island, NY, randomly emailed me. I freaked coz I thought she was actually a Nigerian white slave trader hunting me down (eeep!) but she's legit. But given the choice between New York, where I can go anytime, and the Canaries where I'd never even though of but look FABULOUS, imma haveta take Spanish Island paradise.

Seriously, google it. It's amazeballs.

End result: My gap 'year' will consist of: sun, beach, 2 cutie pie kids, a lovely family, an island home (that isn't Oz), learning another language and what I hope will be a fair few delicious Spanish boyos. Experience of a life time, all mine...AND I CAN"T WAIT!